The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-04-30
Decay of MOrmOniSm.


this queer place, and almost every
day there is a new faction. There is.
first, the "blood drinker" Gentle,
who wants the government to come
down with heavy hand on all Nor
mons; then the moderate Gentle,
who wants very slight pressure
slack Mormon" who wants them
left entirely alone, and the much
larger class who know little about
the issue and care less. Among the
MOrmOns are the old hard headed
fanatics, who "know this work IS of
God" and want to 60 ahead regard
less of congress, courts or the devil
the timid, who are for yielding, ac-
cording to a convenient revelation
they have on that subject, and the
great mass. who have not sense
enough to know good from evil in
government, and do just as their To-
cal bishop tells them. And most i'm
portant of all are the "Hickories''-
the young Mormons. mostly skeptics
and they are the class that will prove
the death of the institution. So di-
versified are our people that the late
acts of congress and the courts set ev-
cry tongue to wagging in different
tone; Jew. Gentle, saint and sinner,
official and Hickory" each is ar
dent in his particular faith, and the
cruel Of street conversation is "thick
and slab'' with partisan hate.
OF course l do not intend to give
your readers history and analysis
of Mormonism-it is chestnut"
All | aim at is to correct few errors
now common in the States. The
first and greatest is the notion that
the Mormon church is growing. In
fact, it has been slowly decaying for
thirty years but the decay is a sort
of dry rot, not the result of outbreak
or schism. Americans get the idea
that the thing is growing from the
fact that all the Mormons Of the
world Il mean the orthodoX-Brig.
hamists) have concentrated in and
near Utah. Once there 10000 Nor
mons in the British Isles-noW not
5000. In Scandinavia the church is
about extinct, Italy, France and Ger
many once held few thousand; now
there is no Mormon church in them.
From the first revelation to the last
conference only ten Irishmen have
Joined this church, and some of them
came to Utah by way of Van Die
mans Land, The heads Of the
church here still claim 1 900 or more
converts in the Sandwich Islands,
and they occasionally exhibit a new
arrival from there in the tabernacle
stand, and have him testify in choice
Kanaka about the growth of the
saints at his home, but l guess the
supply is about exhausted there. |
once heard Brigham Young say that
of all who had ever joined the church
So per cent had apostatized but |
know his estimate was too low.
Ninety-fve per cent. would come
nearer to it. Not long before Proph-
ct Joe Smiths death he published an
estimate of his church, placing the
total communicates at 100000. The
world does not contain half so many
now. OF the 10000 people, more or
less, in Utah, at least 10000 are Gen
tiles, 10000 "Hickories" and 10000
too young to know what they believe
about divine things. Indeed, very
surprising percentage of the adults do
not know enough to start a theologi-
cal academy in the brush.
The other error is in regard to the
young men and women reared in the
Mormon church; they are with
scarcely an exception infidels. l per-
sonally know hundreds of them, and
do not know one who really believes
the doctrine. In fact. l cannot just
now REGAL one Mormon family of
note, from Brigham Young to John
d. Lee, which has produced one de-
yout Mormon. The most "cantan-
kerous" anti-Mormons in Utah are
the scions of the Pratts, Youngs and
other patriarchs of polygamy. Old
Mormons die, young ones grow mp
infidels: there can be but one result
extinction by dry decay. Thous-
ands of these young folks call them
selves Mormons, of course. just as |
call myself Quaker. though | have
not seen the inside of of a meeting
house for twenty years, and just as
my old chum calls himself Penn
sylyania Dutchman, though his an
cestors left the Palatine for Luzerne,
Pa, in the reigh of Queen Anne. 1t
is simply an ethenic title; but here
of late they seem to prefer being call
ed utah Boys" "Utoniansv and
''Valleytans." 1t is nonsense to sup
pose that these fellows will maintain
a 1.